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Brandon Gilmore, the first-year head coach of the Hazelwood Central boys basketball team, was a man who did not know exactly which way to start his career path. All he knew was that he wanted to pursue something that dealt with children. He never thought coaching was his calling but as he got older those that surrounded him, who happened to be coaches, influenced him.

“I always wanted to help out kids, I had a lot of coaches who inspired me growing up, I never thought I was going to coach at first but once I got into it, I just couldn’t stop,” explained Gilmore.

He started out small, landing his first coaching job for a sixth grade team who he said “ended up being a pretty good team with (Washington Wizards shooting guard) Bradley Beal being the all-star player.”

Not too long after coaching a little league team he coached for a year at the collegiate level where he faced one of the toughest obstacles yet.

“It was a very tough situation, learning how to deal with kids from different areas and situations and learning how to piece them together to make it work,” said Gilmore.

One of Brandon Gilmore’s greatest achievements in coaching is leading his team to state a couple years ago and another aspect was 75% of his kids getting scholarships.

His motivation is “to get all my kids in school, see them keep succeeding, of course win, but mainly have their whole college career paid for.”

Gilmore is at the age where he is able to relate to the kids he works with, especially here at Hazelwood Central.

“Coach Gilmore is a wonderful young man, who I have known for quite some time. We have worked together for the last eleven or so years, he’s one of my brothers and I have much respect for him. He does an excellent job working with young men, not only on the basketball court but also in the game of life. Obviously every coach is different and has a different way of teaching, and you can tell he’s very passionate about what he does,” said Mr. Josh Martin, former head coach and now Activities Director at Central.

The players on the team trust Coach Gilmore to set them up to succeed.

“Coach Gilmore is a very good coach he never puts us in a bad position because he never wants to see us fail. He’s probably one of the best coaches I have had thus far,” said senior shooting guard Cameron Williams.

Some of the players appreciate the aggressive style that Gilmore teaches.

“His teaching style is more offensive than defensive so we have more success with offensive plays than anything else,” explained senior point guard Shaun Williams.

For senior forward Larrion Heard, he’s learned more from Coach Gilmore than just basketball, but he also helped him become a better person.

“I’ve known coach Gilmore since middle school, he’s helped me get better at my craft throughout the years and I feel as if he helped me grow as basketball player and as a person because at a young age I wasn’t really as focused as I should’ve been in school and he got on me, disciplined me in the gym, and made me really care about school and basketball,” said Heard.

Coach Gilmore has had a lot of success and in his career so far and got to meet and lead young adults and teach them the fundamentals of life and basketball. Right now he is the head coach here at Hazelwood Central High School and eventually wants to branch out and work at the collegiate level again.

For now though, the 20-1 Hawks are focused on one goal-winning a state championship.

“He’s a really great coach and I believe he can get us to the State Championship but it really depends on us and how we play,” said Shaun Williams.